Morning journal and courier., 1887-10-11
THE CoNGREGATIONAL CLUB.

Rev. Dr. Deems Speaks Against the
 Present School System-Thfnks 1t is
 PernicIous.
 The first meeting of the Congregational club for this season was held last evening in the Center church chapel.
 After the collation. there was a discussion on Religion and our common schools" The discussion was opened by Superintendent S. T. Dutton of the New Haven public schools. He said that in the fall of 1877 the committee on schools recommended that the regular de- votional exercises in the public schools be done away with. Upon this being done there was great dissatisfaction and it resulted in over 5000 Christian people signing peti- tion to have the morning devotional exercises restored. It became at the following school election an issue and it was voted to have the religious exercises continue. Nearly all of the three hundred teachers in the New Haven public schools are Christian workers.
 The next speaker was the Rev. Dr. Charles F. Deems of the Church of the Stranger, New York. He had been specially invited to be present and oppose the common school sys- tenn as 1t now exists in America. He gave 8 very exhaustive address. He said:
 "You would do me an immense injustice if you supposed that took ground against popular education in it's best sense. It is be- cause I desire all to be educated to the ut most proper limit for the best ends and by the best methods that oppose the American common school system, which seems to me obstructive of all these ends.
 "The system now opposed rests upon a general tax to support common education.
 "Every argument in favor of the school established by law is a fortiori in favor of ba nhJroh tah h1ioba1 hv louy every argument against the established church is an argument fortiori against the established school. Being opposed to hav- ing the church established by law I am bound by my intellectual integrity to op- pose the establishment of school by law. If favored general taxation to promote educa- tion l should be compelled, as religious person, to favor general taxation to promote religion. No Christian. no Israelite has yet been able to make me understand how his opposition to the church establishment is to be logically reconciled to his support of the school establishment.
 'It seems impossible to administer our common schools with justice. The tax in America is levied on atheist, infdel Moham- medan, Confucian, etc., without regard to creed. servitude, wealth, poverty, intelli- gence or ignorance When these children are collected in sctool you must furnish all history and all science to begin with.
 fWithout penny of aid from the govern ment two churches day are built in this they build it. When they want school house they would build that. And they would then have their own school az they have their own church. The voluntary sys- tenn would be eminently just and the present system is grossly unjust. Men differ in their opinions, but they all agree that it is unjust to make Q man pay for having his children taught what he believes will be injurious to them. To make him pay for what he does not want but actually abhors is supreme in- justice. If the people want the school let them make it. if they do not want it, why force it upon them and then make them pay for it?
 ''Denominational schools are to our mind the only solution of this question.
 F'The present system is unnecessary and per- nicious. It takes away from the parents that which is placed in their hands by God. Ev- cry man has the right to have his child brought up religiously, but the State steps in and forbids him to discharge this solemn duty. He cannot select the teachers of his children. He must see them torn from him and trained as he would not have them. Se- riously, is not compulsory education under such circumstances 8 crime against nature?
 "Closely connected with this is the direful effect on private schools. It drives thsm out None but the richest can maintain private SCuOOl ALI0E pAJluR IuclE GaAcS 1OT LuS 0SUAD- lished school. They are compelled to send their children to the established school or let them go on in illiteracy, and at the public school the children must take what they can get.
 Another evil of the system is it's tending to nourish hypocrisy in teachers. The sys- tenn is further pernicious in that it is another source of political corruption. Moreover, it pauperizes our people,
 "To my mind the greatest objection to the system is that the money of thousands of church people is employed to sustain sys- tenn which is a prodigious power against Christianity. I grant that all is said as to the impracticability of teaching any religion in the common schools. If the great Pres by terian body in New York State cannot suc- ceed in formulating scheme of religious truth as groundwork of national morality who may hope to do soi It cannot be done. Religion should not be taught in common school supported by general taxation, but no child should be sent to school where relig- ion is not taught. None of our citizens have as much interest in the maintenance of our common school system as the infdel, the agnostic, the atheist and the corruptionists of all kinds.
 'Ioppose this system because it seems to me 1st, unjust; 2d, unnecessary; 3d, injurious; 4th, un-American; 9th, un-Christian."
 Rev. Mir. Lee then took up the sub ject. the wrong side of the question. They are the chief promoters of making citizens of boys and girls.
 Principal Whitmore of the High school spoke briefly in favor of the present system 1T am so much of Catholic, yet a staunch Congregationalist, that I have attended Catholic churches and obtained good iron ! hearing the priests. There are good thing l in the Roman Catholic church."
 Other remarks were made by Principa French, Rev. M r. Blakeslee and others. MEETING OF THE POLO LEAGUE Officers Elected-Water bury Admitted